Feeder valves

ABSTRACT

The invention consists of a feeder valve for periodically discharging material from a storage hopper or other source and consists of a valve housing having a valve aperture passing therethrough and valve opening and closing means consisting of a plurality of vanes or blades extending across said valve aperture and being rotatable about their axes from a horizontal position, in which they close said aperture and a vertical position in which they open said aperture.

O United States Patent 1 1 1 1 3,784,061 Ho an Jan. 8 1974 [5 FEEDER VALVES 3,353,720 11/1967 Ricciardi 222/200 [76] Inventor: John Gabriel Hogan, 19 Meadvale FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Addlswmbe' England 1,269,051 11/1963 Germany 222/200 [22] Filed: Jan. 17, 1972 Primary Examiner-Even C. Blunk [21] Appl' 218366 Assistant Examiner-W. Scott Carson Attorney-Samuel Scrivener, Jr. et al. [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 25, 1971 Great Britain 3049/71 57 ABSTRACT 52 US. Cl. 222/200 The inven'jm mists feeder valve 51 Int. Cl. B65g 3/12 865g 65/70 Cally discharging material wage hopper [58] Field of Searc'h n v 214/173) 307 other source and consists of a valve housing having a ZZZ/196 6 valve aperture passing therethrough and valve opening and closing means consisting of a plurality of vanes or [56] References Cited blades extending across said valve aperture and being rotatable about their axes from a horizontal position, UNITED STATES PATENTS in which they close said aperture and a vertical posi- Al'l'OWOOd X tion in open aid aperture 1,668,324 5/1928 Kreisinger 222/503 X 3,452,904 7/1969 Ricciardi 222/200 7 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEU JAN 8 4 Fla-5.

FEEDER VALVES This invention relates to so-called feeder valves used for periodically discharging a quantity of material from a storage hopper. The invention is concerned more especially, but not exclusively, with a feeder valve for use in the periodical discharge of a powdered or granular material from a storage hopper.

The known forms of feeder valves of the kind above described comprise a slidable plate for opening or closing the valve aperture. Slide valves of this known kind have certain disadvantages and present certain prob lems. For example, the slidable plate can be subjected to considerable pressure from the material to be discharged from the storage hopper and therefore must be supported in such a manner as to reduce friction during at least the opening movement of the valve plate. One known way of doing this is to support the valve plate on rollers but this complicates construction and therefore considerably increases cost of manufacture.

Another disadvantage of the known slide valves is that of leakage. The slidable valve plate, when being moved to open the valve aperture, must necessarily slide through a guide slot in the wall of the valve body and consequently special sealing means must be provided for preventing any of the material being discharged from penetrating into said slot and thus cause clogging and increasing friction on the valve plate. This is particularly the case when the feeder valve is used for discharging powdered or fine-grained materials.

A still further disadvantage of the known form of slide valve is that during the opening movement of the valve plate the valve aperture is opened only progressively from one side to the other so that material is not discharged through the whole area of the valve aperture during the initial opening of the valve.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved construction of feeder valve which does not suffer from the above stated disadvantages of the known construction of slide valve.

With this object in view the feeder valve according to the present invention comprises a valve body having a valve aperture extending therethrough and a plurality of vanes or blades mounted across said valve aperture and rotatable about their axes from a substantially horizontal plane, in which they close the valve aperture, to a substantially vertical plane in which they open said valve aperture.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, one particular embodiment of the feeder valve according to the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a cross-section through the feeder valve;

FIG. 2 is a section on the line lI-ll of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the feeder valve;

FIG. 4 is a section on the line IVIV of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a section on the line V V of FIG. 3.

Referring to these drawings the feeder valve comprises a valve body including an outer valve housing 6 provided at top and bottom with flanges 6a and 6b respectively for connection with a feed hopper or other equipment. Mounted within said outer valve housing 6 is an inner casing 7 having two of its opposite side walls spaced from the housing 6, as indicated in FIG. 1, and its two other opposite side walls in contact with the adjacent side walls of the outer housing 6. The inner casing 7 may be made of any suitable material but is preferably made of nylon. Surrounding the outer valve housing 6 is a vibrator frame comprising end plates 8 and side plates 9, the end and side plates being connected at the comers of the vibrator frame by bolts 10. The vibrator frame is spaced from and supported around the outer valve housing by means of laminated leaf springs 11, the vibrator frame being connected to the bottom flange 6b of the valve housing at one end and the top flange 6a at the other end by angle brackets 12 and bolts 13 respectively.

Rotatably mounted in bushes 20 or other suitable bearings in the side plates 9 are three spindles 14, 14a and 14b which extend transversely across the valve aperture in said inner casing 7 and pass freely through slots l5 in the side walls of the outer valve housing 6 and with a close fit in holes in said inner casing 7 whereby the inner casing 7 is vibrated by said vibrator frame 8, 9 whilst the outer housing 6 remains stationary.

Fixedly mounted on each of said spindles 14, 14a and 14b within the inner valve casing 7 is a v'ane or blade 16, the construction and arrangement of which is such that they can be turned, by rotation of the spindles 14, into a substantially horizontal plane as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 1, in which they close the valve aperture, or into a substantially vertical plane, as indicated in full lines in FIG. 1, in which they open the valve aperture.

The spindles of all of the vanes or blades are coupled together, whereby all of said vanes or blades can be rotated in unison. For this purpose one end of each of the spindles 14, 14a and 14b has fixedly mounted thereon a gear wheel 17 and between and meshing with each adjacent pair of said gear wheels 17 is a pinion l8 freely rotatable on a pin 19 fixed to the side plate 9 (FIG. 5). The spindle 14b (FIG. 2) forms a drive shaft and is connected to suitable manual, mechanical, electrical or other drive means (not shown). The means for rotating the spindles 14, 14a and 14b are such that the position of the blades 16 can be preset at any angle through to give the required feed from zero to maximum at which the feeder valve is rated.

The vibrator frame 8, 9 can be vibrated in any known manner, for example by means of a known form of pneumatic or electrically operated linear vibrator fixed on one of the end plates 8.

It will be understood that by mounting the spindles 14, 14a and 14b in the side plates 9 and passing said spindles through holes in the inner valve casing 7 and through slots 15 in the valve housing 6 permits lateral vibration not only of the spindles and the vanes or blades mounted thereon but also of the inner valve casing 7, such vibration of the casing 7 being made possible by virtue of the spacing of the side walls of said inner casing from the side walls of the outer housing as indicated in FIG. 1.

In order to prevent material discharged from a storage hopper through the feeder valve from falling into the space between the outer valve housing and inner valve casing, a shield or screen 21 is provided at the upper inlet end of the feeder valve.

In the embodiment herein described and illustrated the gearing l7, 18 is arranged to cause the vanes or blades 16 to be rotated in the direction of the arrows in FIG. 1; said gearing may, however, be arranged so as to cause the vanes or blades on both spindles 14a and 14c to be turned downwards instead of one turning upwards and one downwards, as illustrated. Other modifications can of course be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

The blades or vanes 16 may be of any suitable crosssectional shape but are preferably of such a shape that when in position to close the valve aperture provide a flat upper surface across said aperture.

l claim:

1. A feeder valve for discharging fluent material from a storage hopper to a lower hopper comprising a valve body adapted to be fixed to said hoppers and defining a valve aperture, a vibrator, a plurality of spindles journaled in said vibrator and extending with clearance through openings in said body across said valve aperture, a vane carried by each of said spindles, means for rotating said spindles to move said vanes from a horizontal plane closing said apertures to vertical planes opening said aperture, and means resiliently connecting said vibrator to said body so that said spindles and vanes may be vibrated by said vibrator independently of said body.

2. A feeder valve according to claim 1, wherein said spindles are coupled together for rotation in unison by gearing comprising a gear wheel mounted on one end of each spindle and freely rotatable pinions disposed between and meshing with adjacent pairs of gear wheels and wherein one of said spindles is a drive shaft connected to suitable drive means.

3. A feeder valve according to claim 1, wherein said valve body comprises an outer valve housing and an inner casing having two opposite side walls spaced from said outer housing and the two other opposite side walls in contact with adjacent side walls of said outer housing.

4. A feeder valve according to claim 3 wherein said vibrator comprises frame surrounding said outer housing in spaced relationship therewith said resilient means comprising spring means disposed one at each of two opposite ends of said housing, one of said spring means being connected between said vibrator frame and the top of said housing and the other spring means being connected between said vibrator frame and the bottom of said housing.

5. A feeder valve according to claim 4, wherein said spring means comprise laminated leaf springs.

6. A feeder valve according to claim 4, wherein the spindles carrying the vanes or blades pass with a close fit through holes in said inner casing and said openings in said outer housing comprise slots.

7. A feeder valve according to claim 6 wherein said spring means comprise laminated leaf springs. 

1. A feeder valve for discharging fluent material from a storage hopper to a lower hopper comprising a valve body adapted to be fixed to said hoppers and defining a valve aperture, a vibrator, a plurality of spindles journaled in said vibrator and extending with clearance through openings in said body across said valve aperture, a vane carried by each of said spindles, means for rotating said spindles to move said vanes from a horizontal plane closing said apertures to vertical planes opening said aperture, and means resiliently connecting said vibrator to said body so that said spindles and vanes may be vibrated by said vibrator independently of said body.
 2. A feeder valve according to claim 1, wherein said spindles are coupled together for rotation in unison by gearing comprising a gear wheel mounted on one end of each spindle and freely rotatable pinions disposed between and meshing with adjacent pairs of gear wheels and wherein one of said spindles is a drive shaft connected to suitable drive means.
 3. A feeder valve according to claim 1, wherein said valve body comprises an outer valve housing and an inner casing having two opposite side walls spaced from said outer housing and the two other opposite side walls in contact with adjacent side walls of said outer housing.
 4. A feeder valve according to claim 3 wherein said vibrator comprises frame surrounding said outer housing in spaced relationship therewith said resilient means comprising spring means disposed one at each of two opposite ends of said housing, one of said spring means being connected between said vibrator frame and the top of said housing and the other spring means being connected between said vibrator frame and the bottom of said housing.
 5. A feeder valve according to claim 4, wherein said spring means comprise laminated leaf springs.
 6. A feeder valve according to claim 4, wherein the spindles carrying the vanes or blades pass with a close fit through holes in said inner casing and said openings in said outer housing comprise slots.
 7. A feeder valve according to claim 6 wherein said spring means comprise laminated leaf springs. 